Baby Born With Adult Sized Tongue Can Finally Smile After Her Life Changing Surgery

After the birth of their baby, the lives of the parents completely change. They want to be with their baby 24 X 7. They want to be there to witness their smallest activities especially their first ones. Some people make a proper record of their kid’s firsts, his first word, first walk, first clap, etc. But there is one first that tops all of these and that is the first smile on their baby’s face. It’s a feeling to die for. But unfortunately for a family in South Dakota this moment came almost after a year of their child’s birth.

Paisley Morrison-Johnson was born to Shannon Morrison-Johnson and Madison Kienow, a couple residing in Aberdeen in South Dakota, about 16 months back. The baby was born with Beckwith–Wiedemann syndrome, a rare condition that is usually present at birth and is accompanied with overgrowth of some body part in the newborns. An estimated one newborn in 13,700 cases worldwide may have Beckwith-Wiedemann syndrome, which is usually referred as BWS, while 300 children are born with BWS each year in the United States.

This rare condition in Paisley caused her tongue to grow twice the size of her mouth. Her enlarged tongue caused obstruction in her breathing and as sufficient food couldn’t reach her stomach, she was fed using a nasogastric tube for the first few months of her life. The doctors couldn’t find any nipple that could be used to feed her.